A brain dump about living and working on the edge of the social web.

11 posts from April 2005

April 29, 2005

After a lot of hard work by a lot of good people, we launched the Gift Finder beta on Yahoo. This tool provides personal gift recommendations based on a description of the recipient. I'll be writing more about it soon. But for now, check it out and let me know what you think. It's still in beta, so we still have some improvements to make, your comments are more than welcome. We also have a message board for you to submit your thoughts. Again I'll discuss the process and the reasoning behind this application in the next post. I've been recuperating a bit this week. More on that later too.

April 24, 2005

Sort of a day of reflection for me... Plus some things are coming together that I'm really excited about. Please follow the link below and also download and share the mp3 that is linked. I'd appreaciate it.

April 22, 2005

This would be funny if it wasn't so frightening. Okay it's funny. There are a couple of things they need to do to make this even more real. At least for my world... 1. A purple and yellow version
2. Silly half cube bullpens
3. The three person cube pile up

They also need teeny-tiny parking spaces for plastic SUVs and perhaps a restroom... but I'll let Billy, Brenda, and Holly describe that.

I love Archie McPhee. I remember pitching some big funded e-commerce start up during the LVLi days. Their target market was SMB -- small merchants, catalogs, and boutiques. We said that they should become the engine for Archie McPhee and market themselves to that kind of innovative and influential cataloger... to help illustrate our point we handed out dozens of Pez in Fez. It was pretty funny seeing all these venture capitalists and marketing folks wearing fezzes and munching on pez.

April 20, 2005

I had a surprise in my mailbox yesterday. It seems my good friend Dick Hollywood sent me this book for my birthday. Thank you Dick! I really appreciate it. Understanding Comics is one of the best information design books you'll ever read. If you are a working or aspiring IA or ID, this book should be on your bookshelf. It does a great job of deconstructing visual communication theory.

On another note. I only have 10 MB left on my 80 GB iMac hard drive at home. I'm cutting it close. I ordered a new LaCie 250 GB external drive last week and am patiently awaiting its arrival. I also am installing another 512 MB of RAM in that machine. That should help make it last a while. I hope.

April 19, 2005

So I'm ready to start looking for the best digital camera for me. I'm trying to be as objective as possible. Like I've said in the past, the digital camera space for online shopping should have been perfected by now. What that means? I don't know. I'm going to try to find out with this process.

Warning: This is a stream of consciousness. If I put a lot of thought into format, structure, and the actual words I use, I would never get this done... so there you have it.

Here are my requirements...

I think I want a Digital SLR, something semi-pro, but I'm concerned about weight and cost

I know that Nikon and Canon are the brands to beat in this space, so tell me something I don't know.

Tell me something I don't know... That's right... I've been thinking about this use-case for a long time now, so I'm looking for fresh ideas. Fresh ways to find the right camera, fresh content that fits my personality and buying behavior. I figure if it works for me, it will work for a lot of other people. We're all in the same position, we have the same tools at our disposal, so whether one is new to buying a camera or is working on their second or third camera (or more)... The best user experience, content, products, prices, reasons to shop, etc. should bubble up.

I'm starting with Become.com... not for any particular reason other than they just opened themselves up to the public.

Become.com touts themselves as a research shopping engine. They know that most people start their shopping online using a search engine, so they've created a vertical search that purports to understand the user's intent. Meaning a user is there to shop, so make sure the search results pertain to the task of shopping. If a user searches for jaguar, it's more likely that person is looking for the car than the jungle cat. If someone searches for sony they are more than likely looking for sony products and not corporate information. They've used the search term "television" as an example in their PR efforts. So if someone searches for "television," they want results about televisions and not results about the medium. This on the surface makes a great deal of sense. But how does it help me in finding a digital camera?

If you look at these results. The more generic the query, the more Become.com is weak. But when you get somewhat specific like "semi pro digital camera," the results get a lot better. Yahoo! and Become handle these results pretty much the same overall. In fact you see a lot of the same sites and pages showing up, but the only edge Become has is that it's weeding out sites that might not be associated with shopping or product information. They bubble up message board results in these fringe cases more because it's more likely that they are about products; they are either product boards or review boards. That's how understanding the user's intent works. And this does make for a better shopping search result.

Since I'm looking for what I'm calling a "semi pro digital camera," the Become search result is the most relevant, but still isn't showing me anything new. Here is google's version: semi pro digital camera. Arguably an even better result than become.com. Though, it's interesting to see the "cases" bubble up so high in product results and web results for both yahoo and google.

I understand that my search is more on the fringe, but this is what I'm looking for. So far become.com really hasn't given me anything that I couldn't find otherwise. Actually since they don't present a way to purchase, they're offering me less.

If they truly understand my intent. Then they should also understand the intent of the keyword that is used for the search. "Digital Camera" as a keyword would suggest that a user is just starting out on the process of purchasing and is casting a wide net. I would hope that the results would help to focus the user and guide them in the right direction. Putting dpreview and Steve's digicams first, doesn't show me that become understands what I'm doing. Yes dp review is an important site, but going to the home page doesn't help me at all. The third result from cnet is better. I need a guide at this point. I need my hand held. It should understand that and deliver content best suited for that purpose.

I also want my search categorized. It's not enough to focus relevancy based on intent. I'd like to know what I'm looking at. Is the result an expert review, user review, a shopping site, a message board, a blog, etc. I also want to know freshness; how recent is this result? Become.com doesn't deliver that. Well no one does. I understand that this is a new concept, but if search is going to be helpful, then categorizing results would be a great step forward.

So to sum up, Become's results are just as confusing as anyone else's.

I know that they are planning to display offers from merchants this summer. It will be interesting to see how they integrate that. Especially because when people really shop online, what they want to see more than anything else are products. Go figure...

What I want is an engine that knows more than my intent. I want it to know my likes and dislikes, my behavior, my needs. I want it to anticipate my intent as I begin my quest for whatever I'm looking for. We're a smart society, this should be figured out.

Become.com's concept is simple and elegant. I just don't think it's enough for users to make the switch. Not me anyway, not yet. My hunt continues.

April 14, 2005

I finally got a chance to take a look at the new features for Mac OS Tiger. First let me say what's the deal with Microsoft? I'll leave it at that, but, c'mon..! I guess that's why they're calling it "Loooonghorn."

One thing i'd like them to work on is ftp and a more robust text editor. They should also start thinking about ways to own the podcasting experience, they have the tools, they just need more integration and promotion. Combine garageband with websharing, itunes, and safari rss. There's something to it. At the very least build a podcast search and management feature into itunes. There still isn't an ideal application out there to handle podcast feeds.

April 13, 2005

Gotta love ThinkGeek. "stuff for smart masses." Mass can be taken a couple of ways. This shirt is available in XXXL, I'd either get that or the XXL. I like this kind of stuff though. Years ago I wanted Yahoo! to make baby shirts and onesies with the "New!" icon on it. I mean that's such a Yahoo! thing right? At the time they said they didn't want to dilute the Yahoo! brand, but now there are Y! shirts for everything. These guys have the right idea but without our icon, so why not us?

April 11, 2005

Well, now that I have to hunt to find "the best digital camera for me," I'm going to use all these sites that are out there that are supposed to help me with this task. Including Become.com. Again, since this use case has been tried and tested over and over again since the dawn of comparison and search engine shopping, I shouldn't have any trouble, right? Right.

April 10, 2005

I've been sick this week. I'm still not quite right. Just a bad cold. When you have kids there seems to be a domino effect. One goes down, then another, then me. Because of that I've been out of touch with this blog thing.

So here's the deal. Last week I ordered gravel for our driveway. I went down to the rock yard and picked out some nice river gravel. Since delivery was going to be 65 bucks for $130 worth of gravel, I wanted to see what else they could throw on the truck to make it (in my little mind) more worthwhile. How about a boulder? The kids and I picked out a nice 1400 pound Sonoma field stone that they'd deliver for 5 bucks more including a forklift. So for a little more we get a show.

They came this morning and I wanted to take some photos of the "show" to post for all those boulder enthusiasts I know. Jane got the Sony DSC-S85 out but I noticed that it needed a charge so I set it on top of the Jeep... and went to work spreading gravel. Now you're beginning to see where this is going... and if you haven't by now, you are now... Later Jane took off to get some flowers and we haven't seen the camera since. It's probably road-kill. Thousands of Sony pieces nicely scattered across the pavement of Branciforte Dr. I didn't think about it until later. But what can I do?

Nothing.

After the pain of losing a friend for the past 3 years was gone, I looked at it this way... I finally get to put myself through what we have (as an industry) put so many people through in our user studies over the years. The task of researching and buying a Digital Camera online. Just when I was going to write about how I'm tired I am of that particular use case, here I am in the market for a Digital Camera. Go figure.

It looks like a good time for this. I definitely want a D-SLR. I'm tired of the clunky form factor of off-balanced point and shoots. And I have no need to put my camera in an Altoids box. I don't care how small they can make them, they're not for me. I want a camera to make a real click sound, not play a recording of one. I want a shutter. Interchangeable lenses. Depth of field. And most important, when I press the button, that's when I want the photo to be taken, not 1 or 2 seconds later.

I'm looking at the Canon Digital Rebel. I've loved it since I played with it at CES last year. But I just saw that Nikon is releasing two new D-SLRs at the end of the month. Including the Nikon D-50. It's a Nikon UK announcement, so will it be released here anytime soon? This puts me in a dilemma. Do I get something now, or do I wait? I'm not good at waiting for things like this. I have a tendency to fill the void as quickly as possible. If I get something now, I could be taking pictures right away, of what, I don't know, but I could if I wanted to. If I wait, I could have something really new. Like the first kid on the block with an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle.

I'm leaning toward waiting. This way I'll be able to explore all the online options for researching and buying a digital camera. Just like we make those poor folks do behind the mirror.

April 04, 2005

As I'm formalizing the approach of this thing moving forward... I'm thinking about a few things. On days that I'm working too much or when I'm developing a longer entry, I'll try to feature products or a store that I find interesting.

In fact here's a Yahoo! Store I found recently. Osborne Illusion SystemsWith a merchant rating of 4 1/2 stars, this is a store that would make GOB jealous. If I had a spare $3,800 bucks lying around I'd pick up this beauty just to have in my living room.

I also need to take more photos. I made a promise to myself that I would have my camera with me more often and shoot whatever received a double take. I should keep that promise. The freaking prolific jko has got me thinking.

Mike is an official Yahoo now. He stopped by this evening. Messenger should be very happy to have him. I expect great things from that group.

I missed mobile monday tonight. I had to get on home. Maybe next time. I wanted to hear Thad speak about our Mobile Clippings (send to phone) feature... good stuff.

I continue to work on these interesting projects, but after hours the vision stuff is starting to happen. All for the greater good. During the day it's about driving deadlines and targeted initiatives. During the trip home and any other spare moment, I try to take a few steps back and look at the bigger picture. I'll be coy. For now.

Obligatory Introduction

I'm David Beach and this is my blog. I'm a Product Manager, Information Architect, and founder of 12seconds.tv. I work for eBay Mobile. I'm also surviving lung cancer. This site is about my life online and some other junk... enjoy ;)